Native planting might help fight vine pests

Mary Retallack will study pest management by use of more native plants

It is hoped research on Australian native plants might lead to reduced chemical use in vineyards.

University of Adelaide research student Mary Retallack has been awarded a science bursary to study whether native plants can host beneficial insects that prey on some common vineyard pests.

She thinks there may be wider benefits from more planting of native species and reducing use of chemicals.

"It means that it's safer for users - the people working in the vineyards - and we're also providing benefits back to the soil and also buffering the system, we know that systems with higher biodiversity are better able to cope with changes within the system and also extreme weather events," she said.

"The insects provide a fantastic role, essentially we have hundreds of thousands of little workers in the vineyard that can provide natural biological control for free if we look after them and it means that they're able to predate some of the key insect pests that we have."